Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee
March 8, 2003

Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings
“I thought we played hard. I don’t feel we handled the adversity very well of their comeback and them taking the lead. I thought we took some bad shots and turned the ball over. It wasn’t a case of a lack of effort, but it wasn’t the kind of execution we wanted for sure.”

On Vanderbilt effort:
“I don’t think our players should be proud, and I don’t think I should be proud. I think that is the least we can do. It is the very least I can do, and it is the very least they (players) can do. You shouldn’t be sitting here this late in the season wondering what type of effort you are going to get.”

On evaluating the future of the Vanderbilt basketball team:
“I will worry about that when the season ends. My job is to make this team better and to put them in a position to win, and hopefully when we get in those positions we can make the plays we need to.”

“We made some winning plays tonight; unfortunately, they made more.”

On Brian Thornton’s performance recently:
“I think his confidence level is pretty low. I think if you are not hard and tough, that adversity, especially if there is a lot of it, can cause you to lose your edge. When you lose your edge, for whatever reason, it doesn’t come back because you snap your fingers and ask it to return. When you lose it, you have much bigger problems.”

Vanderbilt Forward Matt Freije

On getting back to action after the difficult Kentucky loss:
“We were kind of anxious to get out on the court. I feel we showed that at the beginning of the game. We came out with some emotion, especially on defense, but we just couldn’t sustain that for 40 minutes.”

Tennessee Coach Buzz Peterson:
“I’m proud of our guys. It was a fine effort tonight, coming from behind. That’s our team, though. They continue to fight and never give up. On defense, Freije is such a good player that it’s hard to stop him. You just want to limit his touches. He’s going to score, but you don’t want to let the other guys, like Thornton and Corey Smith, get going.”

Tennessee Forward Brandon Crump:
“This is a very good win for us. It’s one that we needed, especially with the SEC Tournament coming up. We just started thinking we really need this win, and then we started attacking. It was good for our confidence. It was a tough game in a tough environment. But we had a lot of fans come out, and we appreciate their support. But to have a come-from-behind win, especially with Slay being out – it was big. To know we could do that with Slay on the bench is good for our confidence.”